Councilman crashes news conference

San Jose City Councilman Tam Nguyen‘s re-election next year is already getting ugly: The District 7 councilman crashed a rival’s news event where he was accused of hitting one of her supporters in the head with a sign and drew a police response.

The tussle unfolded last Tuesday at a news conference held by Van Le, an East Side Union High School District trustee rumored to be running against Nguyen next year, to denounce him for allegedly spreading “lies” about her. Nguyen showed up — uninvited — and held a sign behind Le for the cameras. Mark Tiernan, her supporter, stepped in front of Nguyen to block him.

Tiernan, the CEO of the Milpitas Chamber of Commece who ran Le’s school board campaign, followed Nguyen as he moved around, leading to the bizarre physical altercation. Tiernan said

the councilman whacked him over the head with his sign. Nguyen said Tiernan pushed and shoved him out of the way.

Before long, things spun out of control and the two sides were shouting insults and threats at each other. Nguyen called police who questioned both men but did not cite anyone.

The dispute stems from Nguyen’s policy in January to ban the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on city flagpoles, in protest of the communist government many Vietnamese expatriates had fled. Le, who supported the measure at the time, has since said it doesn’t go far enough. She wants San Jose to ban the flag everywhere — not just on city property. But Nguyen and other council members said the city doesn’t have such power and that it would violate free speech rights.

Nguyen last month held a meeting and handed out fliers that asked, “Why did Van Le flip flop and support the opposition?” That prompted Le to hold her press conference Tuesday and to show up at a City Council meeting last week to demand he “stop the false accusation and lies” that she supports the communist government.”

Le said the flier has led to people calling her a “communist” and that she feels her life and insurance business are in danger. Nguyen challenged her to a public debate about the flag ban — which she did not accept.

Berkeley chancellor: Beer question ‘stupid’

As she tried to rally support for a carefully cultivated list of priorities, new UC Berkeley chancellor Carol Christ was frustrated by a question about whether Cal should sell beer at college football games.

“It’s such a stupid question,” she said after a news conference Tuesday when a Bay Area News Group reporter asked her what she thought about the idea, proposed in a recently released 201718 budget plan first reported by the school’s student newspaper, The Daily Californian.

What’s no joke are the athletic department’s finances. The department lost $22 million last year, making it the most debts-addled program in the country. A good portion of the problem is tied to debt service payments on the Memorial Stadium renovation, for which Cal Athletics owes some $400 million.

Christ has told the department that like the rest of the campus, which faces a $110 million deficit, athletics must get out of the hole by 2020.

In addition to selling alcohol at games, the department is considering moving its track and soccer teams out of Edwards Stadium near the southeast corner of campus so that the campus can build housing on the site, as well as selling naming rights for Memorial Stadium.

Dozens of colleges across the country allow alcohol sales at college games, and alcohol has been sold at other events on campus property, including at the Greek Theatre.

While Christ might have been annoyed by the beer question Tuesday, saying it was well down her list of priorities, she said during a recent interview with this news organization that she has spent a good deal of time considering campus athletics.

“Along with free speech, I knew that athletics was going to be one of those things, whether I chose it or not, that would be on my plate when I became chancellor,” she said.

During Tuesday’s news conference, Christ appeared to lean toward the idea that some portion of the debt related to the seismic work done on Memorial Stadium should move from the athletic department’s balance sheet to the campus’ as part of a broader agreement.

No final decisions have been made, including about whether Cal fans will be able to buy a beer at a game anytime soon.

Candidate cover’s former endorser photo

Up until two weeks ago, county supervisorial candidate Dominic Caserta was still using campaign ads plastered with Mayor Lisa Gillmor‘s smiling face and glowing praise — even though she’d sent a text yanking her endorsement of him back in May.

Now he’s replaced the mayor’s photo with a big white sticker.

The original flier featured a quote from Gillmor saying the vice mayor has a “proven record of finding innovative and workable solutions.” Gillmor’s photo and apparent endorsement were featured alongside other backers, including Assemblyman Kansen Chu and former San Jose Vice Mayor Frank Fiscalini.

But the mayor says Caserta should stop using her name to win votes.

“I pulled my endorsement of Dominic months ago,” Gillmor said. “Using my name, photo and quote in his campaign materials shows that he is being dishonest with the public.”

Caserta said the piece was printed three weeks before Gillmor pulled her endorsement, and 2,500 ended up in voters’ hands before the mayor sent him a text in May withdrawing her support.

Why did he continue using the piece after that? Caserta said his campaign team initially decided the accolades from Gillmor “remained true and that she would not have a problem with those statements.”

Clearly, they were wrong. Gillmor said Caserta should’ve used stickers to cover her quote “immediately” after she pulled her endorsement and called it “deceptive.”

“In retrospect, I should have clarified that with Lisa but that was impossible as she ended her text with ‘please do not contact me,’” Caserta explained. “Under no circumstances have I, my staff or volunteers been directed to mislead any voter and I have been honest with everyone about Lisa’s decision.”

For the remaining 1,000 pieces, Caserta said, his team placed a white sticker over the mayor’s face and quote — and he will not use her name again.

“I am disappointed this matter is diverting focus from the issues our neighbors are facing,” Caserta said.

Councilman in court to keep seat

San Jose city Councilman Lan Diep might be eight months into the job, but he’s still fighting to keep his seat at City Hall.

Diep is fending off a lawsuit from his predecessor, former Councilman Manh Nguyen, who claims he should’ve won re-election last June.

Nguyen lost to Diep by 12 votes, but contends that the county’s Registrar of Voters made “errors and mistakes” in counting ballots that led to his defeat — though two subsequent recounts confirmed Diep as the winner.

Diep has been representing District 4, which covers Alviso, Berryessa and North San Jose, since January. Nguyen is asking the judge to declare him the winner or set a new election. The case, filed August 2016 in Santa Clara County Superior Court, went to trial this month with testimony from top county officials about how they tallied ballots in the highlycontested race.

Under questioning by deputy county counsel Danielle Goldstein, Assistant Registrar of Voters Matt Moreles testified Tuesday that ballots were “securely” locked up overnight and supervisors observed the duplication process — which involves creating a duplicate ballot when one is unreadable by machine and has been voided.

Moreles confirmed 250 extra ballots were found between recounts and that five voters apparently voted twice — though none of them in the District 4 council race.

A text message exchange between Moreles and a county employee raised eyebrows in court. Asked if duplicates and voided ballots must match before a recount, Moreles told the staffer that “we should fix the duplicates to match.” He explained Tuesday that’s not an unusual process.

Diep, a legal aid attorney who took notes during the hearing, missed two City Council meetings to be in court. Nguyen, a former journalist who’s stayed under the radar since leaving office, listened intently. Nguyen didn’t return calls for comment.

Diep says he remains hopeful he’ll get to stay in office. The judge will decide who holds the seat if Nguyen wins his case and a new election is called.

“Manh Nguyen is seeking to unseat me by invalidating an election and overturning the will of the voters. After seven days of testimony and evidence, I don’t believe he made a clear and convincing argument to justify such drastic action,” Diep said. “But the court’s opinion is the only one that matters. I trust that the court is wellequipped to make the right decision.”

Final arguments are expected in September, then Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Drew C. Takaichi has 90 days to make a decision.

“I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the internet.”

— Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, a San Francisco firm that provides protective services to websites, on stripping that protection from client the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, on Aug. 16, leading to its shut-down.